Fox Valley musicians facing a post-pandemic world ask: What now?

As a saxophone virtuoso, Oswego native Jeff Ford has been nearly cut off from performing live for a year.

He isn’t a singer-songwriter, not able to play on a stage alone with a guitar for an hour or two. And with jazz being his bread and butter, the pandemic makes it hard for a half dozen musicians to get together, improvising through long standards in packed clubs and auditoriums.

“The entire world of performance art of any kind has pretty much disintegrated,” Ford said. “Performing, obviously, has been an important and large part of what I do. But March 16 [2020] was it. We played a concert that afternoon and the whole world shut down that following Monday.”

But Ford has tried to capitalize on the downtime. He released a long-awaited album, “Saxophoning,” in February, splicing together tracks recorded with other musicians over three recording sessions. The final result is an eclectic track list for a jazz record, freely mixing disco, samba and swing.

“This was my opportunity to finally organize it into a finished project,” Ford said.

For Ford and other musicians in the Fox Valley area, opportunities to perform during the pandemic have lurched back and forth just as much as Gov. JB Pritzker’s orders. But with cases and deaths plummeting and vaccinations soaring, many local musicians are asking themselves a simple question - what comes next?

“Most of the concerts I’m involved with have been in ticketed venues, the jazz clubs in the suburbs,” Ford said. “Those places are just not open. At this point in time, there is no timeline for them to reopen. They are not selling tickets to any events.”

Musicians in other genres, however, see plenty of hope in the warm season ahead.

Tim Gleason, a country music singer from Yorkville, said that his schedule is well-booked for the next three months.

“Obviously, some people aren’t comfortable going back out yet, which is fine,” Gleason said. “But the people who are comfortable – they are really showing that music is important to their life. It not only gives them a sense of normalcy, but it makes them realize how much they missed live music.”

Throughout the pandemic, Gleason performed outdoors and on livestreams to support local venues such as Law Office Pub & Music Hall in Yorkville. But the singer says the livestreams are hardly a replacement for live music. Furthermore, he sees plenty of personal feelings that might hinder a full return to live sets.

“A lot of musicians that I know are simply scared to go out and play,” Gleason remarked. “Some of it is probably genuine concern. Some may have health risks But I think the one’s that take advantage of it and the businesses that aren’t afraid to defy the governor’s orders will see that people are ready to come out.”

With outdoor shows so dominant over the past year, venue owners and promoters are equally ready to get their businesses back to normal.

But living in a restrictive state such as Illinois hasn’t made it easy, especially with the threat of future case spikes and governor’s orders.

Boyd Ingemunson, owner of the Law Office, said in November that he had sold nearly 100 tickets for a traveling band that had a show in Indiana the night before. When last fall’s restrictions swept in, the band played the show in Indiana but skipped Illinois.

Regardless, the local venue owner still plans to organize Yorkville’s summer solstice festival and is currently booking acts.

“You can’t let these businesses fail,” Ingemunson said, adding that widespread availability of vaccine should mean the end of restrictions. “But there’s going to be a section of the population that never goes back to normal. How that translates to the music scene - I just think it’s going to be - alright, if you want to take personal responsibility and go to a show or perform it’s your choice.”

Jeff Ford, fresh off his new album, still tries to see the last year in a positive light. And with Oswego opening a new amphitheater this year, maybe he’ll have a new venue for gigs.

“At least I was able to finish a couple of projects here that have been on the back burner,” the saxophonist said. “I am optimistic that we will return to the old normal. That will have to happen.”

UPDATE: A previous version of this story incorrectly published Jeff Ford’s name as “Jeff Lord.” We apologize for the error.